
Class r 66^* 

Book—. 






S^CONGRESSJ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ^No™^ 



GEORGE S. LEGARE 

(Late a Representative from South Carolina) 

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE 

OF THE UNITED STATES 

SIXTY-SECOND CONGRESS 



Proceedings in the House 
February- 23, 1913 



Proceedings in the Senate 
March 1, 1913 



PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 




WASHINGTON 
1914 



MMM 






EI 6^ 




D. OF D. 
MAR 50 1914 



N 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page. 

Proceedings in the House 5 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D 5, 7 

Memorial addresses by- 
Mr. Johnson, of South Carolina 11 

Mr. Loud, of Michigan 13 

Mr. Lever, of South Carolina 16 

Mr. Aiken, of South Carolina 27 

Mr. Davidson, of Wisconsin 33 

Mr. Ellerbe, of South Carolina 39 

Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 43 

Mr. Finley, of South Carolina 48 

Proceedings in the Senate 53 

Prayer by Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D 55 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Smith, of South Carolina 57 

Mr. Williams, of Mississippi 61 

Mr. Townsend, of Michigan 63 

Mr. Sheppard, of Texas 69 

Mr. Gronna, of North Dakota 72 

Mr. Martine, of New Jersey 74 

Mr. Tillman, of South Carolina 76 

Tributes: Excerpts from the Charleston (S. C.) News and 

Courier 20 



'• 




SON. GEORGE S. LEGAHE 



DEATH OF HON. GEORGE S. LEGARE 



Proceedings in the House 

Friday, January 31, 1913. 
The House met at 11 o'clock a. m. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prayer: 

Once more, Almighty God, our Father, we are brought 
face to face with the inevitable in the death of another 
Member of this House. Increase our faith in the immuta- 
bility of Thy character and in the prolongation of life, 
lhat we may be comforted with his dear ones in the over- 
ruling of Thy providence for the eternal and everlasting 
good of Thy children. And help us to be ready when the 
summons comes that we may pass serenely on to the 
larger life. And Thine be the praise in Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

Mr. Johnson of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, it is my 
sad duty to announce to the House of Representatives 
the death of Hon. George S. Legare, a Representative 
from the State of South Carolina. I shall not take the 
time of the House now, but on some future occasion we 
shall ask the House to pay proDer tribute to his memory. 
I offer the resolution which I send to the Clerk's desk. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the resolution. 



[5] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

The Clerk read as follows : 

House resolution 804 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. George S. Legare, a Representative from the 
State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That a committee of 15 Members of the House, with 
such Members of the Senate as may be joined, be appointed to 
attend the funeral. 

Resolved, That the Sergeant at Arms of the House be author- 
ized and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for 
carrying out the provisions of these resolutions, and that the 
necessary expense in connection therewith be paid out of the 
contingent fund of the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

The Speaker. The Chair will ask unanimous consent to 
have that resolution amended by providing for a com- 
mittee of 16 Members instead of 15. Is there objection? 

There was no objection. 

The resolution was agreed to; and the Speaker an- 
nounced as the committee on the part of the House Messrs. 
Davidson, Loud, Wilson of Illinois, Andrus, Young of 
Kansas, Finley, Ellerbe, Johnson of South Carolina, 
Byrnes of South Carolina, Aiken of South Carolina, Lever, 
Hamlin, McLaughlin, Broussard, Reilly, and Booher. 

Mr. Johnson of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I ask the 
Clerk to report the last resolution. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect this House do now 
adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 4 o'clock and 
42 minutes p. m.) the House, under the order heretofore 
adopted, adjourned until to-morrow, Saturday, February 
1, 1913, at 11 o'clock a. m. 

[6] 



Proceedings in the House 



Tuesday, February 18, 1913. 
Mr. Finley. Mr. Speaker, I present the following order. 
The Speaker. The Clerk will report the same. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Ordered, That Sunday, February 23, 1913, be set apart for ad- 
dresses on the life, character, and public services of the Hon. 
George S. Legare, late a Representative from the State of South 
Carolina. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the order. 
The order was agreed to. 

Sunday, February 23, 1913. 
The House met at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D.. offered 
the following prayer: 

" Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From 
the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee when my heart is 
overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 
For Thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower 
from the enemy. I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever; 
I will trust in the covert of Thy wings." 

From time immemorial, O God our Father, men's 
hearts have turned instinctively to Thee in great crises 
for help, in sorrow and grief for comfort, in every con- 
tingency for inspiration and guidance; so our hearts turn 
to Thee as we assemble in memory of men who by faith- 
ful service in State and Nation gained for themselves the 
respect and confidence of the people, wrought well among 
us, left the impress of their personality upon our minds, 
and made a place for themselves in our hearts which 
time nor space can erase. " For we know that if our 
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a 
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal 
in the heavens." 

[7] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

" We leave this and straightway enter into another 
palace of the King more grand and beautiful." 

We mourn their going, but not without hope. We are 
cast down but not overwhelmed, dismayed but not 
confounded. 

For the love of God is broader 

Than the measures of man's mind, i 

And the heart of the Eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind. 

Enter Thou, God our Father, into the desolate homes 
and bind up the bruised and broken hearts with the oil 
of Thy love, that they may look through their tears to the 
rainbow of hope and follow on without fear and doubting 
into that realm where all mysteries shall be solved, all 
sorrows melted into joy, soul touch soul in an everlasting 
communion; and eons of praise we will ever give to Thee, 
in the spirit of the Lord Christ. Amen. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the order in rela- 
tion to Hon. George S. Legare. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

On motion of Mr. Finley, by unanimous consent, 
Ordered, That Sunday, February 23, 1913, be set apart for ad- 
dresses upon the life, character, and public services of Hon. 
George S. Legare, late a Representative from the State of South 
Carolina. 

Mr. Johnson of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I offer the 
following resolutions. 

The Speaker. The clerk will report the resolutions. 
The Clerk read as follows : 

House resolution 867 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of Hon. 



[8] 



Proceedings in the House 



George S. Legare, late a Member of this House from the State of 
South Carolina. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career the House at the conclusion of these exercises shall stand 
adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to the 
family of the deceased. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 



[91 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Johnson, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: In presenting the resolutions which have 
just been read at the Clerk's desk, and moving their adop- 
tion, I take but little time of the House. I wish to call 
attention to the fact that this day we have paid tribute 
to seven deceased Members of Congress. Probably we 
have never in the history of the Government been called 
upon to mourn so many of our fellows as we have in the 
present Congress. 

I have not prepared any speech for this occasion, be- 
cause my duties in connection with the Committee on 
Appropriations have been so arduous and exacting that 
it was impossible for me to give such time to such prep- 
aration as I would like. I see around me many of the 
colleagues of George Legare who have had the oppor- 
tunity and have prepared beautiful orations for this 
occasion. I am not given to the use of flowery language 
nor to flattery, but I wish to say in plain, simple, un- 
adorned English that George Legare was the most loving 
and lovable man that I have ever known; he made more 
friends, and warmer and faster friends, than any man 
of our delegation, or, indeed, than any other Member 
that I have known in my service here. His manners were 
pleasing; he could adapt himself easily to his surround- 
ings; but anywhere and everywhere and always he was 
a perfect gentleman. He came from a long line of Hu- 
guenot origin; he manifested the culture and the refine- 
ment and the mentality of a hundred years in training 



[11] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

and education; his mind was quick and penetrating; his 
judgment clear. Though frail of body, he was indus- 
trious, far more industrious than he ought to have been, 
to the very end. We can not understand why a young 
man of such mentality, refinement, culture, and useful- 
ness should be cut down in what appeared to be the 
beginning of a great career, but faith tells us that it is 
right and all is well. The congressional party who at- 
tended the funeral at Charleston saw in that quaint, 
beautiful old city on every side and in every face evi- 
dence of the deep esteem and the affection that the people 
had for George Legare. It was manifest that as he had 
made friends with all men with whom he came in contact 
in Washington he had also made friends of all the people 
amongst whom he lived and with whom he came in con- 
tact in his own city. 

In the presence of the largest crowd that I have ever 
seen at a funeral the friends of George Legare, with 
loving hands and bleeding hearts, laid him to rest in 
the beautiful Magnolia Cemetery in the beautiful city 
by the sea. 

Mr. Finley at this point assumed the chair as Speaker 
pro tempore. 



[12] 



Address of Mr. Loud, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker: I can but feel most deeply impressed by 
the tributes paid to the memory of my friend and col- 
league. I hesitate to take part because I feel utterly in- 
capable of portraying him as I really knew him, and 
because I realize that I lack the power of expression to 
correctly let the public see, as I should like to have it see, 
the finer, grander, and nobler qualities that made such a 
deep impress upon me. 

It is one thing to know a man and to recognize his splen- 
did attributes of mind and character; but it is quite 
another thing to have the ability to make others see as 
you yourself have seen. 

Just as we admire in a beautiful picture the genius of 
the artist and yet are powerless to reproduce the painting, 
so sometimes in a friend we may see many noble qualities, 
qualities that attract and make everlasting impress, quali- 
ties that arouse great admiration and deep affection, and 
yet be unable to portray those qualities to our own satis- 
faction. George Legare came into Congress at the same 
time as myself and by fate we chanced to become ac- 
quainted at once. I found him a man of marked ability, 
gifted with quick perception, clear understanding, sound 
judgment, and clearness of expression. He seemed to 
have inherited from his Huguenot ancestry an exalted 
sense of honor that was apparent to everyone who came 
in contact with him. These attributes of ability and 
honor made him a Representative in this House of whom 
his district and State may well be proud. 



[13] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legar£ 

Not only did I admire him for his mental ability, but 
more, far more, for the affectionate, loving qualities of his 
nature, which endeared him to me beyond expression. 
For years we lived in the same hotel, and with a group of 
closest friends were constantly together at the same table. 
As time went on he became to me almost a brother, and 
I realized that he was to me one of the dearest friends of 
a lifetime. It was a joy to us both to help each other in 
our congressional work. It was a joy and privilege to 
go with him to his own city of Charleston, to meet his 
home friends and enjoy their hospitality, and in return 
to entertain him in my Michigan home. While at my 
home he, a Democrat, was the honored guest of and de- 
livered a splendid address to the McKinley Republican 
Club of our largest city at their annual banquet. He won 
the heart of every hearer instantly, and his visit is yet a 
loving memory to them all. His loving nature was shown 
in his family life, of which a visitor in the household once 
said that never had she seen a home in which the parents 
so entered into the lives of their children and made them- 
selves children with them. 

His affectionate nature endeared him to his associates 
to an extraordinary degree, and he was kindness itself 
and courteous always to all. 

We who knew him best knew him as one who, like 
Abou Ren Adhem, loved his fellow men — 

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increasel) 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw, within the moonlight in his room, 
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold. 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the Presence in the room he said, 
"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head, 



[14] 



Address of Mr. Loud, of Michigan 



And with a look made all of sweet accord, 
Answered, " The names of those who love the Lord." 
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so," 
Replied the angel. Abou spake more low, 
But cheerily still, and said, " I pray thee, then, 
Write me as one who loves his fellow men." 
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 
It came with great awakening light, 
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed, 
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 



[15] 



Address of Mr. Lever, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker : My remarks on this solemn occasion shall 
be devoted to a brief recital of those characteristics of 
heart and mind which made our deceased colleague the 
best loved and most popular Member who has served in 
this body since my membership began. It is my desire to 
be as candid with him in death as he was with me, and all, 
in life. To him platitude and extravagance of statement 
did not appeal; he believed in the simple statement of 
truth in all things; and we would be untrue to him if we 
should assign to him virtues he did not possess or attribute 
to him characteristics to which he was not entitled, if in 
doing so we were thereby enabled to paint a more beau- 
tiful portrait. In dealing with the character, life, and 
service of a man of the character of George S. Legare 
extravagance of statement and imagination is not neces- 
sary. To sketch his life, just as he lived it, in simplest 
words and without adornment is sufficient to develop a 
painting of which any family may be proud and to fur- 
nish an example to all who may look to biography for 
inspiration and guidance. 

It is my wish to discuss my friend as a man and as a 
public servant. 

In personal appearance he was handsome, with broad 
forehead, clear complexion, and clean, clear brown eyes, 
in which were mirrored the kindliness and sympathy of 
his big soul. Physically he was not a big man, but there 
was a snap and grace about him at once attractive and 
indicative of great moral and mental force. He moved 
with the air of one who understood his purposes and had 
made up his mind to attain them. Any stranger passing 



[16] 



Address of Mr. Lever, of South Carolina 

him by on the street, with no knowledge of who he was, 
would have turned to take a second look at him, just as 
I imagine no one could have passed the great Napoleon 
without being struck with the mental suggestion that here 
is an unusual man, whose outward appearance evidences 
the vigor of his mental and moral qualities. 

In manner he was suave, polite, cordial, and unaffected; 
in disposition, genial; and in his attitude toward others, 
sympathetic and sincere. His personality was charming, 
delightful, magnetic, and, coupled with this, he was 
vouchsafed a rich imagination and an unusual power for 
felicitous expression. In addition to this, he was blessed 
with the divine art of bringing into action all of his facul- 
ties of mind and body to the best advantage at the oppor- 
tune time. He was the complete master of himself in 
all respects, and accomplished his aims in life with the 
precision and directness of one who is in complete domi- 
nancy of self. 

His magnetism was irresistible; it was impossible to 
know him, to come into contact with him, without falling 
under the inspiration of his thought and purposes. You 
were drawn to him, and, as it were, became a copartner 
with him the moment you crossed into the circle of his 
personality. You found yourself involuntarily thinking 
as he thought, feeling as he felt, wishing as he wished, 
and going as he went. Intimacy began with your first 
meeting, and your friendship for him lasted ever there- 
after. The friendship you bore for him differed from 
that you held for all others of your acquaintances. There 
was in it a subtle quality which made it more than friend- 
ship, which elevated it to the pedestal of love. No one 
ever liked George Legare; each loved him. He was the 
type to whom you go when the heart is harrowed with 
sorrow and the mind is afire with doubt. You felt a re- 
liance in his judgment and a certainty of his unreserved 

11356—14 2 [17] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 



sympathy. No skeleton in the closet was so ghastly as 
to make you unwilling to uncover it to him in the fullest 
confidence. His appeal went to the stronger and at the 
same time gentler impulses of the heart. You respected 
his courage, trusted his judgment, and relied upon his 
confidence. These were the qualities which endeared 
him in such a remarkable degree to the membership of 
this House and fixed for him a place in the affection of 
the people of his district and State rarely attained. 

As a public servant, both in State and National affairs, 
he was able, courageous, alert, and patriotic. Consider- 
ing the handicap under which he labored in this House, 
the impress of his influence upon its course is a splendid 
tribute to his ability and aggressiveness. Serving as he 
did most of the time as a Member of the minority party, 
his accomplishments for his district and State bear strong 
testimony to his worth and capacity as a legislator. No 
man with whom I have served had deeper convictions 
upon public questions than had he, nor is there any who 
held to them with greater tenacity. He was a splendid 
fighter, a superb organizer, and an eloquent advocate. 
His speeches came at infrequent periods, but they were 
well prepared, well conceived, comprehensively wrought, 
evidencing a thorough understanding of the fundamentals 
of representative Government, a broad sympathy with 
humanity, and an accurate forecast of coming events. 

It is safe to predict that had he been spared to us, he 
would have become a leading figure in Congress, for in 
this body, where the doctrine of the survival of the fittest 
is so greatly emphasized, leadership comes as the result 
of conviction, preparation, courage, and ability. This is 
no place for the weak, either in mental or moral fiber, 
and George Legare was preeminently strong in both. It 
is sad, almost inexplicable, that with so much to live for, 
with the country in such great need of the kind of man he 

[18] 



Address of Mr. Lever, of South Carolina 

was, he should be cut down in the very fullness of that 
opportunity for service. 

As a Representative his work was peculiarly trying and 
demanded a skill and diplomacy of the highest order. In 
addition to a number of rapidly developing agricultural 
counties, he was the especial spokesman — ambassador — 
of that historic city, the first to throw down the challenge 
in defense of the institutions of the old South and the last 
to readjust itself in accordance with the mandates of that 
most fearful of civil wars. Charleston, for the past two 
decades, has been taking on gradually but certainly a new 
civilization and giving up an old one which made her 
famous throughout the world. To represent accurately, 
to make the Nation understand it all, to bring about a 
mutuality of confidence between the people of this city 
and the people of all the country, to lead, and yet not 
too rapidly, required a tact of which few can boast. 
George S. Legare vividly foresaw the coming glory of his 
State and the proud city of his birth, and recognizing the 
absolute necessity of establishing a cordial relationship 
between them and the Nation, he set himself assiduously 
to bring it about, and he did. A lesser man, with less of 
good common sense and of different personality, could 
not have accomplished it. It was a mission of the highest 
patriotism, and what he did in this respect for the State 
and for Charleston regardless of all else he accomplished 
for them will live in history as his most notable achieve- 
ment in the affairs of men. 

Of distinguished and aristocratic ancestry he, like so 
many others of this class, was forced by the fortunes of 
war to win his spurs unaided save by the endowment of 
Providence. Mr. Legare was in very truth a self-made 
man. Proud of the splendid records of his ancestors, he 
was not ashamed of the fact that at an early age he was 
forced to become a breadwinner and to fight his own bat- 

[19] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

ties. Out of all misfortune there comes some good, and 
to his early struggles in life I attribute his splendid faith 
in the people and his confidence in their capacity for self- 
government. His sympathies were with the great body of 
the American people, and to their welfare was devoted his 
chiefest energy. He believed implicitly in the wisdom of 
the Constitution of his country, and was profoundly con- 
vinced that the safety of our institutions, the happiness 
and prosperity of our people, lay in the perpetuation of 
representative government as given to us in the Constitu- 
tion. One of his most impressive utterances upon the 
floor of the House was that in which he warned eloquently 
and earnestly against the tendency to depart from the 
broad principles of that great document except after the 
widest discussion and most thorough deliberation. 

And now, Mr. Speaker, as we mourn for him to-day may 
we not comfort ourselves with the thought that, though 
never again shall we have him with us, yet he has left to 
us the memory of a most loyal and unselfish friendship, 
the example of a life well lived, a battle bravely fought, a 
death courageously met? 

I desire to insert in the Record excerpts from the 
Charleston News and Courier touching the death of our 
beloved colleague, as a further evidence of the esteem in 
which he was held by those who knew him best. 

The Speaker. Without objection, it is so ordered. 

The matter referred to is as follows: 

A city's people stand bowed in grief over the loss of a beloved 
friend and trusted leader. Multitudes were shocked and count- 
less hearts were grieved when the news of the death of Congress- 
man George S. Legare was read yesterday morning. In all walks 
of life men mourned his loss. Men who had known him spoke 
in hushed voices on the streets, and when they gathered in their 
homes his death was the topic that filled the minds of all. 

Few sections of the United States were not represented in the 
telegrams of condolence that poured in yesterday. George 

[20] 



Excerpts from Charleston News and Courier 

Legare's popularity in Congress was attested by the numerous and 
beautiful messages of love and affection from his congressional 
colleagues. Among these messages were tributes that filled the 
heart of the reader to overflowing. Some said of him that he 
was the best loved man of all the men in Congress. Especially 
touching were the large number of telegrams received from 
friends in Pickens, S. C, where he had spent his summers in 
recent years. 

Going through the streets yesterday one saw on every side of 
him tributes of respect to the memory of the dead Congressman. 
The official flag of the city of Charleston floated at half-mast from 
above the city hall. The Stars and Stripes were likewise draped, 
as if in grief, on the top of the post-office building. Flags were 
at half-mast on many other buildings, including the German 
Artillery Hall and the Hibernian Hall, of both of which societies 
Congressman Legare had been a member for several years. One 
noticed several boats on the river to-day with flags at half-mast. 

The praises of the lamented leader were not sung merely in the 
high places by those who had known him intimately. One heard 
expressions of the sincerest grief from men who had never met 
the Congressman, but who had merely seen him or heard him 
speak. The universal sentiment was that distressed humanity 
had lost a faithful friend when George Legare passed across the 
bar. The unanimity with which his name was lovingly men- 
tioned, the high praise bestowed upon his lofty character, the 
sincere grief of his stricken friends were things to inspire all 
who noted them to live their lives so that when their call came 
their memory would be held in similar sacredness and affection 
by those they left behind them. 

Below are printed a number of tributes to Congressman Legare, 
written by a few of the thousands who knew and loved him. 
There would not be space in a hundred newspapers to print all 
the tender and loving things that have been said about him since 
his death. 

TRIBUTE OF RESPECT 

Fearlessness of responsibility, indomitable energy, tenacity of 
purpose, devotion to duty, liberality of disposition, and fidelity 
to friends were the characteristics of my lamented companion, 
George Legare. He was essentially a self-made man and through 
his own exertions " exacted from the grasp of reluctant fortune " 

[21] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

that success which crowned his life. From early boyhood to the 
day of his death there existed between us that intimacy which 
gave me opportunity to know his worth and appreciate his merit. 
When in the fullness of his strength he accomplished his daily 
tasks and effectively performed the duties undertaken by him. He 
never betrayed those who believed in him, and reciprocity of 
gratitude was his guiding star. It is unutterably sad to realize 
that we shall be forever deprived of the sound of his cheery 
voice, of his genial smile, of his cordial greeting, of his hearty 
handclasp, of his wise counsel, and inspiring patriotism, but our 
consolation is that we need never forget. He has left an heritage 
of which his family and friends may justly be proud and an 
example worthy of constant emulation by those who would be 
true to their God, their country, their home, and their fellow man. 

M. Rutledge Rivers. 



The loss of George Legare to his State and city is difficult to 
estimate. There was no worthy public cause to which he did not 
freely contribute his unexcelled talents, his time, and his means. 
Many accomplished public measures are his lasting monuments. 

The bar of Charleston has lost its strongest jury advocate and 
his multitude of friends their most loyal, genial, and lovable com- 
panion. 

B. A. Hagood. 



With thousands of others I feel the loss of the Hon. George S. 
Legare. In the friendship we felt for the man and in the pleasure 
we had in his charming companionship we may have lost sight 
somewhat of the extent of his abilities and the brilliance of his 
career. He was a man of keen foresight and large perception, of 
strong character, and of marked eloquence. We can but feel that 
the career he had, brilliant as it was, would have been but the 
beginning of a far greater fame in the annals of the Nation had 
life and health been granted him. 

Arthur R. Young. 



There was a magnetic lovableness about George Legare that 
made personal attraction nothing less than a power. Combined 
with this and with brilliant gifts was a boldness, a maturity, and 



[22] 



Excerpts from Charleston News and Courier 



decision of character strongly at variance with his youthful face 
and the genial smile that so often lighted it. 

I have seen him in times of stress. His courage never faltered. 
He was cool, cheerful, and able. His sight was clear, and he was 
prompt to act when he saw. There are many who knew and have 
profited by this quality in the man. 

He filled a large place in the hearts of his friends. He made 
himself a notable figure in a large field. He will be missed and 
mourned by very many. 

Wm. Henry Parker. 



George Legare was essentially a lovable man. Nature had en- 
dowed him with many characteristics which men praise and ad- 
mire; he had many traits which made men recognize him as a 
man of genius and brilliancy; but when in close contact with 
him one forgot for the time his genius and brilliancy and simply 
loved him for the bigness of his heart and for his ready sympathy 
with the needs and aspirations of his fellows. 

He was a lawyer of tremendous power; he was in many re- 
spects a statesman of large vision and of vigorous mentality; but 
more than these, he was to those who knew him a true and 
generous-hearted friend, and as such will always be remembered 
and loved. 

H. L. Erckmann. 



As one of the thousands who knew George Legare — and to 
know him was to love him — will you allow me to add my feeble 
tribute to his memory? 

I can think of no one whose death would bring more genuine 
sorrow into the homes of the people of his congressional district 
than that of my friend George Legare. Gifted with a peculiar 
charm of manner, he bound his friends to him with links of 
steel. 

Generous to a fault, there was nothing too good for a friend. 
His word was his bond. There is no use to speak of what he 
accomplished for his congressional district; we are now reaping 
the reward of his labors. When time with its soothing hand 
allays the bitterness of our grief, the memory of his manly 
tenderness and charm will still be with us to brighten our on- 
ward journey, even unto the end. 

William H. Dunkin. 

[23] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

The news of the final end of the Hon. George S. Legare is sad 
indeed. I had occasion to visit him at his home in St. Andrews 
on January 1C, and while it was apparent that he was a very ill 
man I did not think he would pass away so soon. 

His great power was his personality. He was a kindly man, 
with a warm heart and personal charm in his intercourse with 
his fellows that engendered a marked personal affection for 
him. This was the true foundation of his successful career as 
an advocate and the Representative of his district in Congress. 
Charleston owes much to this son of hers, whom she delighted to 
honor with her confidence. Requiescat in pace. 

Henry Buist. 



My sense of personal loss is so overwhelming I can scarcely 
trust myself to speak of George Legare's death. We were boys 
together and throughout our entire life have been the warmest 
personal friends. His unusual success in life has always been the 
greatest source of gratification to me, and in his death I think 
the whole State, and particularly the community in which he 
lived and the district which he so ably represented, have sus- 
tained an irreparable loss. 

As a public servant he was ever watchful, zealous, and untiring 
in his efforts to advance the interests of his constituents. 

As a friend he was loyal to a degree of complete forgetfulness 
of self and would sacrifice any personal advantage at any time to 
serve his friend, and in this relation his loss will be most keenly 
felt and universally deplored. 

As a man he was without reproach and his public and private 
life may well serve as an inspiration for generations to come. 

His warm, welcome, genial smile and close comradeship will 
never be forgotten by anyone who ever knew him or who was 
ever permitted to come within reach of its benign influence. 

It is doubtful if this generation or the next will ever produce 

his equal. 

W. J. Storen. 



The death of George S. Legare has deprived his district of a 
valuable Representative, and in Congress his loss will be seriously 
felt. He will live long and lovingly in the memory of those who 
knew him, for to have had his friendship one enjoyed the com- 

[24] 



Excerpts from Charleston News and Courier 

panionship of a noble character. He was ever honest and stead- 
fast to duty as he saw it; firm and faithful to any principle that he 
knew was right, to which was combined the tenderness of an 
ardent and a sympathetic nature that gave him a magnetic per- 
sonality. George Legare was absolutely a self-made man, and in 
doing his life's work he gathered to him men of every condition 
and in every walk of life, all of whom became his friends; so 
that to-day the banker, the mechanic, the merchant, and the 
laborer alike feel keenly the death of him whom they all knew 
and called " George." He was zealous and deeply devoted to his 
work in Congress for the good of his district, and but few of his 
constituents are aware of that which he accomplished by his 
energy, pluck, and attractiveness. It was in his home life, how- 
ever, and with his closest friends that he was at his best. His 
ideals were the happiness of his father and mother, his wife and 
children, for whom he had built a future of comfort and con- 
tentment; this, alas, so soon has been wrecked. It is such charac- 
ters as George Legare that make the world brighter and better. 
His duty has been properly and patriotically performed and he 
has made mankind his debtor. The regret occasioned by his 
death is as widespread as he was worthy and estimable, as he 
was high-minded, generous-hearted, brilliant, and true. 

A. Molony. 



Mr. Legare's qualifications as an advocate merit too high a 
praise to be spoken in a word. He appealed most to me through 
the deep sympathy which went out from him to his fellow men — 
all of them — and by the fact that he dedicated his life to prac- 
tical services for them. If I may say so, it was the humanity 
of the man which won and rightly held for George Legare the 
real affection of his people. 

Alfred Huger. 



I have been intimately associated with George Legare since his 
early boyhood, and he was in every sense of the word a grand 
and noble man. Possessed with unusual ability and superb judg- 
ment, together with his personal magnetism, it was no surprise 
to those who knew him that he rose so rapidly once having 
entered on his public career. It will be difficult to find any 

[25] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

citizen in our State who held such a firm hold upon the masses 
in every walk of life. Our city and our State have lost one of 
their noblest sons. 

J. Elmore Martin. 



My conception of George Legare can not adequately be ex- 
pressed in words. He was a courageous and masterful man, yet 
tender and sympathetic as a woman. A truer and more steadfast 
friend never lived. He was my bosom friend. 

W. L. Harris. 



[26] 



Address of Mr. Aiken, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: "The good die young." Whoever first 
spoke these words probably had in his mind the thought 
that the world can ill afford to lose the good at any time. 
In the case of George Swinton Legare' they have a literal 
as well as figurative meaning. He was young in years, 
and he was good far beyond the ordinary application of 
the word. He had barely crossed the threshold of ma- 
tured manhood. He was in that period of life which 
ordinarily marks a man's greatest promise of physical 
and mental vigor. 

His mentality was abnormally broad and strong. His 
impulses were pure as a crystal spring, his actions gov- 
erned by the inspiration of duty and the dictates of justice 
and fairness. His character was as clean as the driven 
snow. As man, as husband and father, as friend, he 
stood as the very highest type. As a citizen of the Re- 
public, in his devotion to his obligations as such, and in 
the more than conscientious discharge of his duties as a 
legislator he was beyond compare. Verily, he died too 
young. 

It is inexpressibly sad to contemplate the passing of a 
friend whose years were but few, as years are measured 
in the career of public men. At the time of his death 
George Legare was only 42 years of age. Of those little 
more than two score years he had spent 15 serving his 
State and his country. For 10 years he was a Member of 
this House. He and I came together to the Fifty-eighth 
Congress. From the very beginning of his service here 
until the very last he gave the best that was in him to his 
legislative work. Aye, Mr. Speaker, he gave his very life, 

[27] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

for though the disease which means death had gripped 
him in its grasp, though he knew that to continue in his 
work meant for him the shortening of life, though dear 
ones implored and friends pleaded that he should give 
himself some respite, he never yielded to the soft en- 
treaties, but firmly persevered until the silver cord was 
loosed and the golden bowl was broken. 

We who saw and heard him on this floor, keenly atten- 
tive to every important measure, unvaryingly observant 
of everything that concerned his district and his State, 
participating in debate with the skill and eloquence of the 
born advocate; his colleagues on the Committees on 
Foreign Affairs, and Banking and Currency, and Patents, 
who noted his assiduous labors there and were witnesses 
of the care with which he regarded every proposition, 
recognized the fact that the frail body of George Legare 
harbored an indomitable spirit, and paid him the silent 
tribute of profound respect. 

But, Mr. Speaker, George Legare was more than re- 
spected. He was beloved by all who knew him. Why? 
Because he was the apostle of sunshine and of cheerful- 
ness; because kindness fairly exuded from his person- 
ality; because "every smile was a benediction and all 
speech a blessing." It may be doubted if even his closest 
friends fully knew how utterly he sacrificed himself upon 
the altar of public duty, just what effort it cost him not 
to sadden them with even the semblance of suffering. 
When the inroads of his malady took too severe a hold 
upon his endurance he hastened to some far-off spot par- 
tially to regain his waning powers, and after a brief season 
of rest and recreation he returned to his work with un- 
daunted spirit and a smile on his face to reassure the 
anxious ones. 

He preserved the best traditions of a distinguished 
ancestry, for he was of that family of Legare whose sons 

[28] 



Address of Mr. Aiken, of South Carolina 

have ever been among the truest of the old Palmetto 
State. In the early days of the Republic Hugh Swinton 
Legare was a Representative in Congress after having 
been in the Diplomatic Service, and later was called by 
President Tyler into his Cabinet with the portfolio of the 
Attorney General. The earliest history of South Carolina 
finds the Legares in and near Charleston, and from that 
historic city our departed friend was sent to Washington. 
There he had earned his spurs as a lawyer, holding his 
own with the ablest members of the bar. There he 
served for five years as public prosecutor, relinquishing 
that important office only when he was called up higher to 
represent his district in the Congress of the United States. 
If he had been spared, who shall say that the Senate 
would not have become his forum, or that, like his an- 
cestor, he would have sat at the President's council board? 
Mr. Speaker, I have already referred to that trait in our 
friend's character which preeminently distinguished 
him — his sunny disposition. It so pervaded his whole 
existence that I feel I shall not violate the canons of good 
taste by expatiating upon him. George Legare was an op- 
timist of purest ray serene; not subjective merely, but 
objective in the highest degree. His optimism was con- 
tagious. It radiated from him to the furthest limit of 
those who were brought into contact with him. It was his 
gospel. He preached it from the housetops, as it were. 
He waged incessant warfare against the spirits of dark- 
ness and despair, and they fled before his onslaught. In 
his view the world was good and getting better all the 
time. For him there was no evil so great but that the 
fountain of his all-embracing catholicity found a remedy. 
And while he would never agree that anything could be so 
bad as to be beyond the possibility of cure, so he also held 
that nothing in this world is so good but that it may be 
better. 

[29] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Legare 

This beautiful optimism had its root, I doubt not, in an 
abiding faith in the promise of the life to come. I doubt 
not but that in his heart there always echoed and reechoed 
the words of the Master : 

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest. 

In no other way could he have borne each day's suffer- 
ings with humble resignation nor ever turned a hopeful 
heart to the morrow. From that same font sprang his 
love for his fellow men. The current of his thought 
flowed ever outward, ever toward others, ever toward 
places where burdens might be lightened or sorrows 
assuaged, and where the tears of grief might be dried by 
words and acts of kindness and sympathy. 

He was thoroughly honest, not in deed alone but in 
thought. He accepted the trust reposed in him by his 
people with no mental reservation as to self. No motto 
fits him so well as that in the coat of arms of the Prince 
of Wales, " Ich dien," for service — true, faithful, watchful, 
unceasing service — was the badge of his whole career. 
Public office was to him no incentive to personal gain. He 
could see neither honor nor profit save in doing his fullest 
duty to his constituents, to his State, and to the Nation. 
He never compromised with wrong. To him black was 
black and white was white, and there were no intermedi- 
ate shadings. Friend or foe always knew where to find 
him, for he went into battle with open visor. Democrat 
to the backbone, he never placed party above country, 
and his political adversaries always found in him a fair 
and generous opponent. 

That upon the death of such a man there should have 
arisen a very symphony of sorrow is not surprising. I 



[30] 



Address of Mr. Aiken, of South Carolina 

shall cite but a few of those mournful eulogies. One of 
his colleagues from a distant State said in his message: 

He was the finest man I ever knew. No one could have better 
character or truer heart. He always stood for the best there was 
in life and legislation. 

From men in his State came words like these: 

There was no public cause to which he did not freely contribute 
his unexcelled talents, his time, and his means. 

I have seen him in time of stress. His courage never faltered. 
He was cool, cheerful, and able. His sight was clear, and he was 
prompt to act when he saw. 

He was in many respects a statesman of large vision and of 
vigorous mentality. But more than these — he was to those who 
knew him a true and generous-hearted friend, and as such he 
will always be remembered and loved. 

Gifted with a peculiar charm of manner, he bound his friends 
to him with links of steel. 

And, Mr. Speaker, the last one of these tributes which I 
shall cite is the best of all, because it was paid by one who 
knew him all through life, and it epitomizes all that has 
been or can be said of him : 

As a public servant he was ever watchful, zealous, and untiring 
in his efforts to advance the interests of his constituents. As a 
friend he was loyal to a degree of complete forgetfulness of self, 
and would sacrifice any personal advantage at any time to serve 
his friend, and in this relation his loss will be most keenly felt 
and universally deplored. As a man he was without reproach, 
and his public and private life may well serve as an inspiration 
for generations to come. 

Pomp and circumstance did not mark the last rites when 
the remains of George Legare were given, in beautiful 
Magnolia Cemetery, to the bosom of Mother Earth, but the 
great outpouring of the people was a magnificent tribute 
paid to the memory of their friend and neighbor. Over 



[31] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

his last resting place no great mausoleum or cloud-pierc- 
ing obelisk may be reared. More fitting will it be if the 
seed be sown from which will blossom flowers typifying 
the beauty and fragrance of his brief span of life. With 
each recurring spring, as a beautiful German song has it, 
they will blossom up from the heart of the dead and lift 
their heads toward heaven as an offering of love. In the 
hearts of his friends he built for himself a monument of 
love which can vanish only with the last heartbeat of the 
last one of them all. 

To all who knew him he bequeathed the precious legacy 
of a spotless life; to his country, the memory of faithful 
service; and to posterity, the example of civic virtue. 



[32] 



Address of Mr. Davidson, of Wisconsin 

Mr. Speaker: It is eminently fitting and proper that this 
hour should be set apart for services in memory of our 
dead colleague. 

This arena, usually the scene of turmoil and strife, is 
to-day reverently peaceful and quiet. 

To-day we have put aside partisanship, put aside the 
strife for legislative success. To-day we have forgotten 
that we are even legislators, and remember only that we 
are men, human men, with all the love and affection and 
sympathy that one human heart can have for another. 
We remember that we have lost a friend and brother, one 
who was especially near and dear to us. 

George S. Legare was one of God's noblemen; no better 
man ever lived. He came here, nearly 10 years ago, as the 
Representative of the first district of South Carolina. He 
was a young man, as years measure life. 

He looked upon the work before him as something real, 
something worth while, something worthy of his best 
energy, his highest ambition. 

From the beginning of his service in this House he was 
an active, efficient worker. There never was any doubt 
as to where he stood upon any public question, and while 
he was always forceful in defending his opinions he was 
ever tolerant with those who differed with him. 

He was always active in behalf of the interests of his 
district, and the building up of the Charleston Navy Yard 
and the improvement of the Charleston Harbor are monu- 
ments of his efficiency as a Representative. 

When he first came to Washington he was a robust 
athlete of splendid physique. 

11356°— 14 3 [33] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legar£ 

It is said that " Death loves a shining mark." Certainly, 
in this case, the " white plague " laid its withering blight 
upon a " shining mark," and it almost seems as if his life 
was required as a sacrifice in order that the Nation might 
be stimulated to greater effort to eradicate this dread 
disease. 

At the instance of the present President of the United 
States, then Secretary of War, arrangements were made 
for Mr. Legare to take treatment at the Army sanitarium 
in New Mexico. Under this treatment he improved, and 
subsequently he spent his vacations in the mountain re- 
gion of his own State, hoping that the air and climate of 
that section might aid him in his fight for health. 

For a number of months the battle seemed to wage in 
his favor; but, true to a characteristic predominant in his 
make-up, he could not refrain from taking an active part 
in the campaign of last fall, not for his own reelection, be- 
cause that was assured, but in behalf of a friend who had 
favored him. I fear this extra strain upon his already 
weakened constitution hastened his untimely death. 

Be that as it may, those who knew him well feel certain 
that he would have gone to the aid of his friend just the 
same had he known in advance that such action would 
give an advantage to the malady with which he was 
contending. 

Here on the floor of this House in the discharge of our 
legislative duties we find but little time for the cultivation 
of social relations. 

It was my good fortune for several years to be inti- 
mately associated with Mr. Legare in a social way. We 
lived at the same hotel, we ate at the same table. Our 
families became intimate friends. 

It is under such circumstances that you come to know 
men best and to better realize their true worth. 



[34] 



Address of Mr. Davidson, of Wisconsin 

During all the years of that close and intimate associa- 
tion nothing ever occurred to lessen in any degree the 
esteem and love I had for this colleague. He was to me 
more like a brother than a colleague. In his presence 
I never realized that I was a Republican and he a Demo- 
crat; that I was from the North and he from the South; 
but I was always impressed with the fact that I was asso- 
ciating with a gentleman. 

By birth, education, and environment he was a gentle- 
man. It is not necessary for me to say that he was a 
southern gentleman, because, I take it, gentlemen are very 
much alike the world over. He, however, possessed all 
those characteristics and instincts which prompted him 
to do the gentlemanly thing instantly and under every 
and all circumstances. 

He was a man, take him for all in all, 
We shall not look upon his like again. 

The congressional committee appointed to attend upon 
his burial realized when it arrived at Charleston that a 
city was in mourning. On every hand there was abun- 
dant evidence of the affection, esteem, and honor which 
the people of that city had for George Legare. Flags 
were at half-mast everywhere, and the thousands who 
gathered at the home, who were present at the church, 
and who, with bowed heads and tear-dimmed eyes, lined 
the streets over which the funeral cortege passed, gave 
evidence of the personal loss they had sustained. 

As the long procession approached the Second Presby- 
terian Church, where a brief memorial service was to be 
held, and as the chimes rang out in sweet tones that 
beautiful hymn " Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to 
Thee," with the knowledge that our dear friend had 
just crossed the river, it seemed as if we were a little 
" Nearer, my God, to Thee " than ever before. 

[35] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

At Magnolia Cemetery, in the shadow of the beautiful 
live oaks and amid a profusion of floral emblems, mute 
but beautiful tokens of the love and affection of his 
friends, we buried him. 

Our duty there fully performed, we turned our faces 
again to the northward and to this Capitol, here to resume 
our legislative duties, but not soon to forget the splendid 
character, the noble qualities, and the kind heart of our 
friend whom we had left behind. 

Less than two years ago the angel of death visited this 
afflicted home and took from it the youngest child, a most 
beautiful and loving little daughter. This sad blow came 
unexpectedly and as the result of an accident. 

Mrs. Legare and the children were at their home. Mr. 
Legare had been in Washington, but at that hour was 
journeying homeward unconscious of the accident or what 
awaited him. A friend met him at the depot, partially 
apprised him of what had happened, and hastened him to 
the bedside of the injured child. The little one had ap- 
peared unconscious, and yet when he spoke to her and 
said, "Tiny, do you know me?" holding her little hands 
toward him she said, " Yes, daddy; I know you," and, with 
a smile still lingering on her lips, her eyes closed in death. 

During all the years since this malady afflicted him Mr. 
Legare fought courageously for his life that he might be 
spared to care for his wife and family. He fought a good 
fight. He never faltered. He never surrendered, even to 
the last hour of his existence. And yet somehow I can not 
but feel that, relieved from all the pain and suffering, he 
passed from this world to the great beyond consoled with 
the thought that at least he would not be a stranger to 
everyone over there, but that he would find waiting for 
him little Tiny, with her sweet smile and outstretched 
arms, and he would hear her dear voice saying " Daddy," 
I am waiting for you." 

[36] 



Address of Mr. Davidson, of Wisconsin 



To us it seems as if he was taken at almost the thresh- 
old of an active life, and yet he had done much for his 
city, much for his country, much for his friends and 
family, and we can well believe that the plans of an all- 
wise Providence are not made by chance, and that in the 
taking away of this splendid type of American citizen and 
public servant a lesson is taught to us that, if duly appre- 
ciated, will redound to the welfare of the Nation and the 
benefit of mankind. 

The home life of Mr. Legare was ideal. He was a loving 
son, a devoted husband, a tender and thoughtful father. 
The parents, in their advancing years, are deprived of the 
joy and comfort which his coming always brought to 
them. The loss, however, of the bereaved wife and chil- 
dren is beyond reckoning. The one has lost a loving and 
devoted companion, the others a generous, kind-hearted 
parent. 

May God in His loving mercy care for and protect them. 

May the three sweet daughters, just budding into young 
womanhood, be shielded from every harm, and may the 
little boy " Billie " grow into manhood, having ever before 
him the recollection of the splendid character and noble 
achievements of his father, and become such a man as his 
father would have wished. 

To the bereaved wife do we extend our deepest sym- 
pathy. She has been so brave and courageous through it 
all. For months she cared for the home and family of 
little ones while her heart was away out in the West with 
her stricken husband fighting for his life. 

And then, through all these later years, how faithful and 
devoted she had been. Though her heart was breaking 
with the knowledge of what the end must be, she never 
faltered, but bravely discharged with much feeling and 
great tenderness every duty of wife and mother. 



[37] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

She will have such comfort and care as loving children 
and devoted relatives and friends can give, but she will 
miss, oh, so much, the love and companionship of the one 
who was so devoted to her. 

May God comfort her as she sits alone amid the desolate 
ruins of a once happy fireside: 

Waiting, waiting, waiting for the touch of a vanished hand, 
For the sound of a voice that is still. 



[38] 



Address of Mr. Ellerbe, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: Tears came unbidden to many in this 
Hall who had known and loved George Legare when, on 
January 31 last, the news came that the brave battle which 
he had been fighting with disease and death was over and 
that he had passed before us into the great beyond. 

A peculiar sense of personal bereavement is felt when 
life goes out from those whom we deeply love. It is in 
this sense that the death of George Legare falls with 
crushing force upon those who had been his daily asso- 
ciates. 

George — " Our George," as every man in his district 
knew him and as his friends in Washington loved to call 
him— had been always so ready to toss aside his own 
burdens in order to lighten a brother's load by helping 
him to bear it that his friends often forgot how heavy his 
burden of ill health must be. He was all light and sun- 
shine, and we who were nearest him never realized what 
a Gethsemane he must have known in those hours when 
he came face to face with the knowledge that the life 
which had been so full of helpfulness and accomplish- 
ment must be closed while his hopes and ambitions were 
still at their height. 

Many men would have become morbid and under the 
weight of this knowledge would have lost heart for the 
struggle, but not George. Whether he were here or at 
home, his energy and work for his State and his district 
were unceasing, and so greatly did we all love him that we 
rivaled each other in carrying out the measures that he 
had planned. No congressional district in the United 



[39] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

States was better served than the first district of South 
Carolina during George Legare's 10 years in Congress. 

Born of a line of ancestors who have contributed to our 
country many of her finest jurists and statesmen, George 
Legare early determined to be worthy of his distinguished 
name. It was his pride to tell of his own efforts toward 
the accomplishment of his ambition. Character and 
brain were more plentiful than money in Charleston dur- 
ing the seventies, and George Legare worked hard and 
saved the money with which he paid for his education at 
the South Carolina college. Having won the friendship 
of the late Col. George D. Tillman while at college, he was 
given a clerkship in Washington, and here he studied law 
and learned the elements of that legislative work to 
which he later brought so much ability and power. Hav- 
ing graduated in law at Georgetown University in 1893, 
he was admitted to the bar in South Carolina, and became 
associated with the firm of Murphy, Farrow & Legare, in 
Charleston. In the law his ability was soon acknowl- 
edged, and he took his place as one of the ablest members 
of the bar of Charleston. Here as in Congress his native 
ability, combined with his active brain, made him a 
wonderful jury advocate, and his fellow lawyers speak of 
him as a pleader of eloquence without a peer. 

In 1902 he succeeded Col. William Elliott as Representa- 
tive in Congress from the first district of South Carolina, 
and since then he may truly be said to have been a figure 
of national importance. 

This is not the time nor the place to tell in detail of his 
work in Congress. We who have served with him know 
of the many measures for the good of his people which he 
accomplished, and his people realize what his life meant 
to them and, alas, what his death means, too. 

His constituents were ever ready to place the seal of 
their approval upon his work, and he was reelected over 

[40] 



Address of Mr. Eleerbe, of South Carolina 

and over again by majorities which showed how much his 
people loved him. 

For several years the battle with disease, which ended 
on January 31, was fought steadily and bravely. Presi- 
dent Taft, who admired and loved him, advised him to go 
to New Mexico in search of health and had him admitted 
to a Government sanitarium there. Seemingly he re- 
gained his strength, and although President Taft offered 
him, and was anxious for him to accept, a position in the 
Southwest, where the climate is high and dry, he declined 
because his heart turned ever back to South Carolina and 
his people, whose interests were dearer to him than life 
itself. For some time after his return to the East his 
health seemed to be restored, and even the rigors and un- 
certainties of a Washington winter left him apparently 
well; but the fatigue of a summer campaign and the expo- 
sure due to his desire to show all the hospitality for which 
Charleston is famous during the visit of the fleet to that 
port last fall proved too much for his newly regained 
health, and a severe cold contracted at that time marked 
the beginning of the end. 

There was a feeling with George Legare of personal 
pride and love for the gallant war vessels which rode so 
proudly in Charleston Harbor last October, for one of 
them had been named in his honor. President Roosevelt, 
like everyone who came within the magic sphere of 
George Legare's influence, loved him, and in his honor 
named the dreadnought South Carolina. This was but 
an evidence of George's popularity among Republicans 
as well as Democrats. As true as steel to his own party 
and to his friends, he was nevertheless always ready with 
his happy faculty of telling a story to bring a smile to the 
lips and happiness to the hearts of men regardless of their 
political or religious creeds. 



[41] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

Some one has spoken of him as " a typical southern gen- 
tleman and a typical southern politician." Oh, that the 
latter were deserved and that his life might be the ideal 
of those who ask us to consign our interests into their 
hands! 

He was a friend of truth, of soul sincere; 

In action faithful, and in honor clear; 

Who broke no promises, served no private ends, 

Sought no title, and forsook no friends. 

His manly, kindly face will be missed in the House, and 
the cloakrooms and corridors will miss the brightness of 
his magnetic smile. But though he be dead, the sunny 
influence which his presence lent will be always with us, 
while the kindness of his generous heart and gallant 
nature can never be forgotten. Hundreds of loving 
friends who in the sunlight of his genial presence had 
learned to admire and love him — to love him for his 
manly characteristics, his nobleness of nature, his purity 
of heart, his deep affection — are overcome with that grief 
which silence, not language, can alone express. 

I say here, while my heart is aching for the friend who 
has left me, that he was to me a brother, for there are ties 
stronger than kinship, closer than blood — they are the 
relationships of the heart — and by every bond of love and 
congeniality I say George Legare was a beloved brother. 

Eulogies may express faintly the present sorrow, but 
they can not depict the permanency of the pain that fills 
the hearts of those who have been left behind for a while. 

The world to-day is darker because our friend has gone, 
but it does seem to me that heaven must be brighter since 
the pearly gates were flung wide and George Legare 
entered in. 



[42] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: I was born and reared in the city of 
Charleston, where George Legare resided, and it was my 
good fortune to know him ever since my boyhood days. 
He was the son of Edward T. and Kate Malcolmson 
Graves Legare, and he was born at Rockville, Charles- 
ton County, S. C, in 1870. Though he came of one of 
the most distinguished families in the State, his parents 
were possessed of but little means. I think it is true that 
they were what we in South Carolina call " land poor," 
and it was not without difficulty that George was able to 
secure an education. He attended Porter Military Acad- 
emy, from which he was graduated with honors in 1889. 
He then attended the law school of South Carolina Uni- 
versity for two years, after which he studied at the 
Georgetown University law school in this city. While 
at Georgetown he secured employment in various ca- 
pacities in the city in order to assist in paying for. 
his tuition and his maintenance. His thirst for knowl- 
edge was great, and, overcoming all obstacles, he 
graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1893 and 
immediately returned to Charleston, where he entered 
actively into the practice of the law as a member 
of the firm of Murphy, Farrow & Legare. In 1898 
he was elected corporation counsel for the city, which 
position he held until he was elected to the Fifty-eighth 
Congress. My earliest recollection of him is when I, as 
a boy, visited the courthouse at Charleston and heard 
him eloquently pleading the cause of a client. I can 
recall with what rapt attention I listened to him and how 



[43] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

quickly he won my boyish sympathy for the cause he 
advocated. Other Representatives who were associated 
with him here during his entire service have referred to 
his capacity and his ability as a legislator; but those who 
knew him only during the last few years can not compre- 
hend or appreciate the talents of the George Legare I 
knew at the bar in Charleston, when he possessed robust 
health and before he was attacked by the dread disease 
which finally took him from us. As an advocate in the 
courthouse he had no equal in the State of South Caro- 
lina. Endowed by Providence with gifts most rare, with 
an astute mind, a musical voice, a keen sense of humor, 
and a sunny disposition that drew men to him and held 
them, it was but a short while before he had a large 
clientele, and while he practiced law there was hardly a 
case of any importance tried in the courts of his county 
in which he was not employed. He was equally the mas- 
ter of pathos and humor, and was never more at home 
than in the trial of a cause. He could reason with irre- 
sistible logic to the court and afterwards just as easily 
draw tears from the eyes of the jury by a sympathetic 
appeal. His own generosity and experience, which had 
brought him into contact with the unfortunate, permitted 
him to speak from his heart, and his eloquent and pas- 
sionate appeals contributed to his success as an advo- 
cate. As an artist plays upon the strings of a musical 
instrument, so would he play upon the feelings of his 
listeners, and rarely did he fail to awaken in their hearts 
a responsive chord. As Ms reputation as an advocate 
grew he was associated in the trial of damage suits in 
many counties of the State, and I recall that he repre- 
sented the plaintiff in a case in which there was rendered 
against the Southern Railway the largest verdict in the 
history of the courts of the State. 



[44] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 



During the years in which he practiced law he became 
known to every inhabitant of the city in which he lived. 
This was due to what was perhaps the most distinguishing 
trait of his character — his democracy. It was not the 
democracy of a demagogue, but of a man who loved man- 
kind and was loyal to his friends. With his distinguished 
ancestry and his charming personality he was welcomed 
in the most aristocratic circles in that most aristocratic of 
cities, Charleston, and he was yet the friend and com- 
panion of the poor and the uncultured of that city. He 
made friends of all men, regardless of political affiliation, 
religious creed, or racial characteristics. 'Tis true that 
he brought sunshine into the lives of many, and darkness 
into the life of no man. He saw only the good in men, 
refusing to believe that which was not good. 

Possessed of these virtues, it is not surprising that when 
he sought to represent his district in the Fifty-eighth Con- 
gress he was elected, and that ever since that time, though 
he has had opposition once or twice, he has been reelected 
by overwhelming majorities. 

With his service here you are familiar. The same lov- 
able disposition that had won friends for him at home 
soon made him one of the most popular Members of the 
House, and the same qualities of mind that had won suc- 
cess for him at home soon made him one of the leaders of 
this body. He was, above all, an honest legislator. In 
this, and I presume in every legislative body, there are 
some men who have not the courage of their own convic- 
tions, who, through fear or to satisfy a supposed sentiment 
among the voters, a sentiment often manufactured by 
selfish interests, will vote for measures against their own 
honest convictions. Legare was not of them. He had the 
courage of his convictions. He hated insincerity and de- 
spised demagoguery. Instead of sacrificing his views he 



[45] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

would vote for what he believed to be right, and if it was 
not in accord with a request made of him by some of his 
constituents he would then undertake to prove to them 
that his was the correct view. His sincerity and honesty 
were quickly recognized by his constituency and his 
political success should inspire other legislators to fear- 
lessly stand by their convictions at all times. 

Though for the last few years he was in ill health, he 
continued to labor in behalf of his people, and the manly 
way in which he bore his suffering and optimistically 
looked to the future commanded the admiration of his 
friends. His ill health did not lessen in the least his abun- 
dance of good nature or affect the spirit of mischief which 
often made us regard him as but an overgrown boy. 
Every member of our delegation has at some time or 
other been the victim of one of his practical jokes, and 
one of his most intimate friends tells me that but a few 
hours before he passed into the great beyond, when he 
knew the end was near, the same spirit of mischief 
prompted him to tease the father he loved so well and 
who was to him a companion as well as a father. 

George was loyal to every friend as well as to every 
trust, and too much can not be said of this trait in a man's 
character. He was loved by men because he loved them. 
He was a better friend to everybody than anybody is to 
anybody. He loved all mankind, and in his personal 
associations exemplified the doctrine of " loving his neigh- 
bor as himself." It is small wonder that when we went to 
Charleston to pay the last sad tribute to his mortal re- 
mains hundreds of people were unable to gain admission 
to the church where the funeral services were held. 
From my knowledge of those people I know that they 
came from every walk in life, people of all nationalities 
and of all creeds, and as his body was borne away the 



[46] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

tears that fell from the eyes of strong men, as well as from 
gentle women, gave proof of the fact that it was no idle 
curiosity that brought them there, but that it was their 
last tender tribute to one whom they loved. 

His body now rests in beautiful Magnolia, on the 
Cooper, but his memory lives and will ever live in the 
hearts of those whose good fortune it was to know him. 

Mr. Ellerbe assumed the chair as Speaker pro tempore. 



[47] 



Address of Mr. Finley, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: 

An age which passes over in silence the merits of the heroic 
deserves as a punishment that it should not bring forth such a 
one in its midst. 

We are met to-day to do honor to the memory of 
George S. Legare, late a Representative from the State of 
South Carolina, and in assembling to commemorate the 
virtues and cherish the example of one whose life was 
spent in the public service we perform a duty which we 
owe not only to the departed dead but to ourselves and to 
future generations. 

George Swinton Legare was born at Rockville on Wad- 
malaw Island, Charleston County, S. C, in 1870. He 
was the son of Maj. Edward T. and Kate Malcolmson 
Graves Legare, and came of a family distinguished in 
the history of South Carolina. This family was one of 
the large number of Huguenot families whose founders 
came to America and settled in the lower part of South 
Carolina during the years 1685-86. Contemporary writers 
describe these settlements and the character of the people 
with great admiration, and it was of this colony that Gen. 
Lawson said: 

They have no differences among themselves; union hath propa- 
gated a happy and delightful concord in all matters throughout 
the whole neighborhood; living among themselves as one tribe or 
kindred, every one of them making it his business to be assistant 
to the wants of his countrymen, preserving his estate and repu- 
tation with the same exactness and concern as he does his own; 
all seeming to share in the misfortunes and share in the advance- 
ment of their brethren. 



[48] 



Address of Mr. Finley, of South Carolina 

Of such stock did George Legare spring, and many of 
their characteristics we see reproduced in him. When a 
boy he moved to Charleston, where he earned the money 
with which to pay for his education at the Porter Military 
Academy, graduating with honors in 1889. He attended 
the University of South Carolina for two years, and later, 
a clerkship, which he secured at Washington, enabled him 
to complete the law course at Georgetown University, 
where he graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1893. 
Returning to Charleston he was admitted to the bar of 
South Carolina and entered upon a large and lucrative 
practice, in the discharge of which his ability soon placed 
him among the leaders of the Charleston bar. As a jury 
advocate he was especially able, throwing his whole soul 
into every speech that he delivered, and speaking with an 
eloquence that earnestness of conviction and a winning 
personality made most effective. 

In 1893 Mr. Legare married Miss Frances Izlar, daughter 
of the late Judge and Mrs. James F. Izlar, of Orangeburg, 
and to them were born six children, four of whom are liv- 
ing. In 1898 he was elected corporation counsel of the 
city of Charleston and held that position until 1903, when 
he was elected to represent the first South Carolina district 
in Congress. He was reelected to the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, 
Sixty-first, and Sixty-second Congresses, and was in No- 
vember reelected to the Sixty-third Congress. As a Rep- 
resentative in Congress, Mr. Legare reflected great credit 
on his district and his State by the ability with which he 
discharged his duties. Possessed of a mind of unusual 
brilliance, strengthened by education and broadened by 
culture, he made himself master of any subject to which 
he devoted his attention. While essentially a Democrat 
and a partisan, his breadth of outlook comprehended the 
needs of the whole Nation, and his desire for its welfare 
marked him as possessing that trait which distinguishes 

11336°— 14 4 [49] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

the statesman from the politician. Mr. Legare was always 
a hard and conscientious worker, and even in the later 
years, when failing health made the discharge of his 
public duties increasingly difficult, he remained at his 
post of duty and accomplished much of benefit, both to 
his constituents and to the country at large. He secured 
many needed improvements for his district, among them 
money with which to build the new immigration station 
at Charleston, appropriations for the Charleston Navy 
Yard, and for the deepening of the Ashley River. He was 
instrumental in securing the passage of a bill for a new 
battleship, and in recognition of his services the ship was 
named South Carolina. 

Although last winter in a weakened condition of health, 
winch hardly permitted of his remaining in Washington, 
he delivered two speeches on the floor of the House which 
evoked favorable comment from all parts of the country. 
His speech against the recall of judicial decisions was a 
potent factor in defeating the admission of Arizona as a 
State while this objectionable feature remained in her 
constitution. He also took a leading part in the fight 
for the abrogation of the treaty with Russia, because of 
her persecution of the Jews, and as a token of their esteem 
he was presented last year with a gift by his Jewish 
friends in Charleston. 

There remains another side of his character which per- 
haps contributed more largely than anything else to his 
great success in life. In addition to high ideals he pos- 
sessed in an unusual degree the happy faculty of making 
friends. His was a personality so winning and magnetic 
that he seemed to make friends without effort, and the 
friendships once acquired his charm of manner and lofty 
character always retained. Loyalty to his friends was 
one of the guiding principles of his life. He was an opti- 
mist in friendship, looking for the good in people and 

[50] 



Address of Mr. Finley, of South Carolina 

trusting them as long as they would let him. To such a 
person the world acts as a mirror, giving back always the 
kind of treatment accorded it. As a result George Legare 
numbered his friends almost by his acquaintances, and if, 
as the proverb says, " There are as many uses for friend- 
ship as for fire and water," then George Legare possessed 
one of the essential things of life in an unusual degree. 
He was the most generally popular man the city of 
Charleston has produced since the Civil War, and of all 
the Members of this House there was probably no one bet- 
ter loved than he. The sense of loss felt at his passing is 
general and very great. In the termination of such a life 
as his we can not but feel great sorrow; yet if we believe 
with the poet, that — 

The living are the only dead; 
The dead live nevermore to die, 

we know that it is not for the dead themselves we sorrow, 
but for the vacant place their going makes with those 
who are left behind. I can not better sum up the life 
lived by George Legare than in the words of William II 
of Germany: 

To be strong in pain; not to desire what is unattainable or 
worthless; to be content with the day as it comes; to seek the 
good in everything and to have joy in nature and men, even as 
they are; for a thousand bitter hours to console one's self with 
one that is beautiful, and in doing and putting forth effort always 
to give one's best, even if it brings no thanks. He who learns 
that and can do that is a happy man, a free man, a proud man; 
his life will always be beautiful. 

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
of the House who wish so to do may have leave to print 
remarks in the Record relative to the life, character, and 
public service of the late George S. Legare. 

The Speaker pro tempore. Is there objection? 

There was no objection. 

[51] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 



Mr. Finley resumed the chair as Speaker pro tempore. 
adjournment 

The Speaker pro tempore. In accordance with the reso- 
lution previously adopted, the Chair declares the House 
adjourned until 10.30 o'clock to-morrow morning. 

Accordingly (at 8 o'clock and 28 minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned until to-morrow, Monday, February 24, 
1913, at 10.30 o'clock a. m. 



[52] 



Proceedings in the Senate 

Friday, January 31, 1913. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by J. C. 
South, its Chief Clerk, communicated to the Senate the 
intelligence of the death of Hon. George S. Legare, late a 
Representative from the State of South Carolina, and 
transmitted resolutions of the House thereon. 

The President pro tempore. The Chair lays before the 
Senate resolutions of the House of Representatives, which 
will be read. 

The resolutions were read, as follows : 

In the House of Representatives, 

January 31, 1913. 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. George S. Legare, a Representative from the 
State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That a committee of 16 Members of the House, with 
such Members of the Senate as may be joined, be appointed to 
attend the funeral. 

Resolved, That the Sergeant at Arms of the House be authorized 
and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for carrying 
out the provisions of these resolutions, and that the necessary 
expenses in connection therewith be paid out of the contingent 
fund of the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect this House do now 
adjourn. 

Mr. Williams. Mr. President, I submit the resolutions 
which I send to the desk, and ask for their adoption. 



[53] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

The resolutions (S. Res. 445) were read, considered by 
unanimous consent, and unanimously agreed to, as 
follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sensibility the 
announcement of the death of Hon. George S. Legare, late a 
Representative from the State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That a committee of nine Senators be appointed by 
the President of the Senate pro tempore, to join the committee 
appointed on the part of the House of Representatives, to attend 
the funeral of the deceased, at Charleston, S. C. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these reso- 
lutions to the House of Representatives. 

The President pro tempore appointed, under the second 
resolution, as the committee on the part of the Senate, 
Mr. Tillman, Mr. Smith of South Carolina, Mr. Martine 
of New Jersey, Mr. Swanson, Mr. Perky, Mr. Myers, Mr. 
Gronna, Mr. Crawford, and Mr. Poindexter. 

Mr. Williams. Mr. President, I move, as a further mark 
of respect to the memory of the deceased Representative, 
that the Senate take a recess until 11.45 o'clock to-morrow 
morning. 

The motion was unanimously agreed to; and (at 5 
o'clock and 25 minutes p. m.) the Senate took a recess 
until to-morrow, Saturday, February 1, 1913, at 11.45 
o'clock a. m. 

Monday, February 17, 1913. 
Mr. Tillman. Mr. President, I wish to give notice that 
on March 1, 1913, I will ask the Senate to consider resolu- 
tions commemorative of the life and public character of 
George S. Legare, late a Representative in Congress from 
the State of South Carolina. 

Monday, February 2k, 1913. 
A message from the House of Representatives, by J. C. 
South, its Chief Clerk, transmitted to the Senate resolu- 

[54] 



Proceedings in the Senate 



tions of the House of Representatives on the life and 
public services of Hon. George S. Legare, late a Repre- 
sentative from the State of South Carolina. 

Saturday, March 1, 1913. 
The Senate met at 10 o'clock a. m. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. R. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for 
the gracious Providence which brings us to this day of 
solemn and reverent memory. As we recall the life and 
public service of him whom we this day commemorate, 
we pray Thee to inspire our minds and to give utter- 
ance to our lips, that we may fitly honor the life which 
Thou hast called to Thy nearer presence and to Thy 
higher service. 

We pray Thee, our Father, to comfort those that mourn. 
Uphold them by Thy heavenly grace and grant that 
neither the height of remembered joys nor the depth of 
sorrows that can not be forgotten, nor the present with 
its burdens nor the future with its loneliness may be able 
to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. 

In the name of Him who abolished death and brought 
life and immortality to light, hear Thou our prayer. 
Amen. 

Mr. Gallinger took the chair as President pro tempore 
under the previous order of the Senate. 

The Secretary proceeded to read the Journal of yes- 
terday's proceedings, when, on request of Mr. Smoot and 
by unanimous consent, the further reading was dispensed 
with, and the Journal was approved. 

Mr. Smith of South Carolina. Mr. President, I ask the 
Chair to lay before the Senate the resolutions of the 

[55] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

House of Representatives on the death of Hon. George S. 
Legare, my late colleague in that body. 

The Presiding Officer (Mr. Page in the chair). The 
Chair lays before the Senate the resolutions from the 
House of Representatives, which will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolutions of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, 

February 23, 1913. 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of Hon. 
George S. Legare, late a Member of this House from the State of 
South Carolina. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career the House at the conclusion of these exercises shall stand 
adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to 
the family of the deceased. 

Mr. Smith of South Carolina. Mr. President, I submit 
the resolutions which I send to the desk and ask for their 
adoption. 

The Presiding Officer. The resolutions submitted by 
the Senator from South Carolina will be read. 

The resolutions (S. Res. 492) were read, considered by 
unanimous consent, and unanimously agreed to, as fol- 
lows: 

Resolved, That the Senate expresses its profound sorrow on 
account of the death of the Hon. George S. Legare, late a Member 
of the House of Representatives from the State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended in 
order that fitting tribute may be paid his high character and dis- 
tinguished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these reso- 
lutions to the House of Representatives and to the family of the 
deceased. 

[56] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Smith, of South Carolina 

Mr. President: Those not familiar with the conditions 
in the South during the first two decades subsequent to 
the war between the States can form no adequate con- 
ception of the struggle to maintain a scanty livelihood 
and the South's civilization. The war drained our re- 
sources, impoverished our people, and placed us in a 
position where the first and indispensable consideration 
was the means of obtaining food and clothing. 

Schools were closed because the children were neces- 
sary to help supplement the efforts of their parents in 
this struggle. The fathers and mothers of the South ap- 
preciated then, as they do now, the necessity for educa- 
tion, but were unable materially to assist their children 
in obtaining it. 

The marvelous advancement in the material wealth of 
this section is not the greatest commentary upon the spirit, 
resourcefulness, and character of the southern people. 
The most lasting and glorious monument to their indomi- 
table courage and high ideals is in the fact that, in spite 
of conditions unparalleled in the history of a civilized 
people, in spite of poverty, in spite of the temporary domi- 
nation of alien forces, they still maintained their ideals 
and kept burning on the altar of their institutions the fires 
of education and progress. 

The inherited spirit of a long line of indomitable ances- 
tors fired the hearts of the children; born in these adverse 
circumstances, from the ashes of disaster these arose to 



[57] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

march undaunted to the ultimate goal of education, of 
refinement, and culture to the achievement of material, 
mental, and moral wealth. 

There is perhaps no page of history which, if it was 
written in all its fullness, would become such a lesson of 
inspiration and hope as the history of the struggle of the 
youth of the South during these dark days. 

The glory won on a thousand battle fields, the proof of 
heroism there given, the unconquerable nerve and cour- 
age there displayed do not surpass that displayed by the 
boys and girls of the South in their struggle to conquer 
the difficulties surrounding them and to maintain their 
birthright. 

Congressman Legare, like many another, was a victim 
of these circumstances. But with a keen appreciation of 
the condition in which he found himself, and a desire to 
overcome these conditions, he set himself resolutely to 
the battle before him. His fight for success, though but 
the common history of many another, does not detract 
one jot or tittle from the measure of praise due him. 

He was born on Wadmalaw Island, near Charleston, 
in 1870. 

In boyhood he removed to Charleston and engaged 
in the dairy business. The money that he saved from 
this occupation he used in paying for his education. He 
was fortunate in being in a city where there were, per- 
haps, the best facilities for education then in the State. 
He took a course at the Porter Military Academy and then 
spent two years at the University of South Carolina. 

Congressman George D. Tillman gave him a clerkship 
here in Washington. This gave him an opportunity of 
completing his legal education. He attended the law 
school of Georgetown University. At this time he had 
the opportunity of acquiring an insight into congressional 



[58] 



Address of Mr. Smith, of South Carolina 

life, of which he availed himself, as his subsequent life 
fully attested. He graduated from the Georgetown Uni- 
versity in 1893 and was admitted to practice in the courts 
of South Carolina in the same year. He located in 
Charleston, and in the course of his successful practice he 
became associated with the firm of Murphy, Farrow & 
Legare, one of the best-known and most successful law 
firms in eastern South Carolina. After the death of Mr. 
Farrow, the firm name was continued as that of Murphy 
& Legare. During the latter years of his life he prac- 
ticed law by himself until the condition of his health 
forced him to retire from active practice. Mr. Legare 
was one of the strong jury lawyers of the Charleston bar. 
He was a man of remarkable personal magnetism. He 
had to a preeminent degree the personal characteristics 
that make for popularity and success — a clear thinker, a 
good story-teller, of a genial disposition. These char- 
acteristics enabled him to make friends wherever he 
went and served him in attaining success, both in private 
and public life. 

He was elected corporation counsel of the city of 
Charleston and held this position until 1903, at which 
time he was elected to Congress. 

The characteristics above referred to made him one of 
the best-loved and most popular Members of that great 
body. Members of both political parties loved him. 
And in his native State, both rich and poor, black and 
white, got close to the heart of George Legare. 

Others will speak of his domestic and private life. 

Mr. Legare died in the prime of his manhood. For 
years he was fully aware of the fate that awaited him. 
He was thoroughly conscious that the end must come to 
him soon. He displayed the same courage in face of this 
unconquerable foe as he had displayed in the presence 



[59] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

of difficulties which he had overcome, and went to his 
doom with a splendid fortitude. 

The perfection of a circle does not depend upon the 
length of its diameter. And the lesson of the short, 
bright, successful life of George Legare is as perfect as 
though it had spanned the circle of three score years and 
ten and had gone out in the mellow glow of the natural 
evening of life. 



[60] 



Address of Mr. Williams, of Mississippi 

Mr. President: The Senate has just heard the story of 
the struggle of a broken family in the South to reestablish 
itself. I need not, therefore, dwell upon that, though I 
had thought I would. It is an old problem, very dear to 
my heart. 

George S. Legare was of old Huguenot stock, of that 
superb breed of honest, sturdy, middle-class Frenchmen 
who in south and central France resisted religious and 
political oppression to the death point, welcoming cessa- 
tion of life rather than lame surrender of conviction in 
life. 

When Louis XIV rescinded the Edict of Nantes he pre- 
pared for struggle in many countries an army of French 
immigrants, against whom France, in great crises, strug- 
gled in diplomacy and upon the battle field in vain for 
very many decades. They carried to other lands arts, in- 
dustry, simple living, and high thinking, and to no other 
country was it carried by them more than to South Caro- 
lina. The Legare family afterwards became typical in 
American national thought of southern slave-holding aris- 
tocracy, so much so that the name, without any basis of 
fact, was taken as parcel of Mrs. Stowe's indictment of the 
South in Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

It will be news to many that no better democrats ever 
lived than George Legare and his family preceding him. 
If they shared any feeling of aristocracy at all, it was one 
in favor of clean speech, wife-loving domesticity, and 
loyalty to superior intelligence, breeding, and character 
wherever it might exist. If this be aristocracy, I profess 
no animosity to it. 

[61] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

South Carolina's record as a State of courage and initia- 
tive has been chiefly due to its Huguenot and Scotch-Irish 
traditions and ideals, its passion for religious and indi- 
vidual liberty and self-government, its passion for empha- 
sizing the man and God, the only two realities in a spir- 
itual sense. 

George Legare was a gentleman, every inch of him, 
physically, mentally, and morally. If to be a gentleman 
be to be an aristocrat, I again confess no animosity to aris- 
tocracy. Lovable, loving, manly in strength, womanly in 
sacrifice and in devotion to ideals and in tender-hearted- 
ness, I lay my wreath upon his bier. Suffering for many 
years with a known advertisement of death, apt to visit 
him at any moment, he never faltered, but carried a smile 
with superb courage to the grave. 

May God soften a blow harder than most deaths would 
be to the wife who was like him and to the ancient lineage 
of which he was so worthy a representative. In his life- 
time he never asked and never refused quarter. There, 
too, he was a gentleman. In eternity, what he meted out 
to others in courage and in kindliness of heart will be 
meted out to him, and no apology in the chancel of God 
will be necessary. 



[62] 



Address of Mr. Townsend, of Michigan 

Mr. President: I have sometimes thought that Con- 
gressmen do not appreciate as fully as they ought to do 
the sacred duty which is imposed upon them by the set- 
ting apart of days upon which to memorialize their de- 
parted colleagues. The dead do not need our words of 
praise; they are not affected by our censure. If we have 
waited to express to them our feelings of regard, if we 
have withheld our acts of kindness until they are dead, our 
opportunity to render these blessed services to them is 
gone, but we can in some measure extend the beneficence 
of their virtues by embalming them in records which will 
be read and appreciated by others. Furthermore, it is 
well for the Congress to pause for a sacred hour when 
one of our associates whom we have known and loved 
enters the Great Beyond. And this is so because of the 
benefit to the Congressmen themselves. They are made 
a little kinder, a little better, a little stronger by contem- 
plating the virtues and the death of a good man. 

To me this day affords a precious opportunity to speak 
of one whom most of you did not know, but whom I 
knew intimately and well, and loved dearly for his splen- 
did qualities of heart and mind. 

George S. Legare and I entered together the Fifty- 
eighth Congress, and at the very beginning of our fresh- 
man year we became acquainted, and the acquaintance 
grew and strengthened into the strongest bond of friend- 
ship and love. I knew him as a Congressman; I became 
acquainted with his social and political standing in his 
home district in Charleston, S. C; I had intimate knowl- 
edge of his beautiful family relations. I was his sincere 

[63] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

and admiring friend, as was everyone who knew him 
well. When he entered Congress he was but 33 years old 
and, with an unusually bright intellect, an unsullied char- 
acter, a forceful yet kindly disposition, and a seemingly 
strong and robust body, his future seemed peculiarly 
bright and promising. Coining, as he did come, from 
South Carolina, he was a Democrat. He loved the tra- 
ditions of his country and gloried in the heroism and 
bravery of her southern sons. His father was in the Con- 
federate Army, and in the awful devastation of the Civil 
War lost everything of material value; but that father 
lived to see a redeemed and reunited Union and its 
mighty interests represented in the National Home of 
Representatives by his devoted and well-beloved son. 

Congressman Legare was a patriot, and in his geography 
there was no Mason and Dixon's line, not even a twilight 
zone between the North and the South. He was big 
enough and wise enough and good enough to represent 
not only South Carolina, but Maine and California and 
Michigan as well. Sectionalism was unfelt by him, and 
he believed in one country and one flag, unlimited by 
State boundaries, unstained by prejudice or passion. 

Two times he went with me into Michigan to address 
Republican banquets there, and while he did not depart 
from his political faith, he uttered such sentiments of 
patriotism and brotherly love that those who heard him 
became his friends and admirers. In each of his Michi- 
gan audiences were scores of northern veterans of the 
Civil War, and I can yet see the tears course down their 
grizzled cheeks as he spoke so eloquently and so feelingly 
of conditions in the Southland after the war, of his respect 
and honor for those who fought against his people to 
maintain the Union, of his glorious ideals for the future. 
The death of this good man was a sad event in Charles- 
ton, but sorrow was not confined to that city. It touched 

[64] 



Address of Mr. Townsend, of Michigan 

hundreds of hearts in Michigan, and men and women 
there who had met and known him were sincere 
mourners. 

I believed and have so expressed myself many times 
that George S. Legare was an evangel between the North 
and South. He preached not alone by words but by life 
and action the gospel of national fraternity and good will. 
Michigan came closer to the South because he spoke to 
and mingled with her people. South Carolina had a 
broader view of nationality, a kindlier feeling for the 
northerner, because he lived among and taught them. I 
know this is true so far as my State is concerned, and I 
believe it is equally true in his State, for I went with him 
once to Charleston and addressed a great audience in that 
city composed in a large part of men who wore the gray, 
and I received a sympathetic and enthusiastic hearing. 
It seemed that all vied with each other to give me welcome 
and to make me feel at home. They were echoing the 
sentiments of their generous Congressman. 

Some time, as I remember it now, in the Fifty-ninth 
Congress Representative Legare became aware of the 
awful fact that the "white plague" was upon him. He 
went to Fort Bayard, N. Mex., where he was treated at the 
Government tuberculosis hospital during something less 
than a year, and then returned so improved in health that 
he and his friends believed that he had mastered the 
dread destroyer. He again entered upon his congres- 
sional duties and by spending his vacations at his moun- 
tain home in Pickens, S. C, and by using due care as to 
living conditions he seemed in fairly good health, and we 
again had high hopes for his future usefulness. His dis- 
trict was proud of him, and it so loved him that it would 
not think of sending another to Congress in his place. 
Not until last year did any member of his party enter the 
primaries against him, and his political campaigns put 



11356°— 14- 



[65] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

no additional burden upon him. Last year, however, a 
contestant appeared against him, and while the Congress- 
man's nomination was assured, yet he entered vigorously 
into the campaign, and the work thus done hastened his 
mortal existence to its close. The smoldering embers of 
consumption were fanned into a consuming fire, and the 
life so dear to his family and friends and so useful to his 
State burned out. Thus went out from this Congress one 
of the brightest and most lovable men I have ever known. 

He has left a loved and loving wife who is almost heart- 
broken over her lover's death. They were sweethearts 
always, as much so during every year of their wedded 
life as on the day when the minister joined their hands 
to consummate their prior union of hearts in holy wed- 
lock. To this happy pair six children were born, four of 
whom survive. They are beautiful children and were 
the pride of their father, as they will be the joy and 
comfort of their mother. A devoted father and mother 
survive him. In their old age their principal joy and 
comfort centered in their distinguished son, and these 
bereaved parents have my sincere sympathy. That his 
going away has left his home desolate but feebly states 
the fact. His loved ones have, however, only precious 
memories of a loving husband, father, and son, but they 
have no regrets caused by any failure of gentle care and 
unfeigned devotion to their dead. Earth is not so bright 
as before he left, but heaven is dearer and richer since 
he entered there. 

It is difficult when the doctor gently lays the pulseless 
hand upon the death-stilled breast; when the casket is 
lowered into earth's narrow cell; when the funeral cor- 
tege returns from the cemetery; when the lights go out 
and memory is the only companion — it is difficult then to 
speak the word which comforts the heart bereft. To me, 
however, it is most comforting to know that I have had 

[66] 



Address of Mr. Townsend, of Michigan 

the friendship of a good man; that I have known him well 
and found him true and loyal, for having so known him 
I can not lose him, certainly not that part of him which is 
impressed upon my innermost life; and besides, if there 
be another and a better existence — and who can doubt 
there is? — then surely the good, the beautiful, and the true 
must be preserved, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

I do not know what the after life is nor where, but I 
know it is. Else why the speculation as to it? Why this 
longing for immortality? On what other theory can we 
explain the broken plans, the unfinished work, the incom- 
plete lives? Is mind, which is a concomitant of human 
life, an exception to the universal law which denies the 
destructibility of any force? Surely no greater, no more 
potent, no more evident force than mind is known. It is 
king of matter and subjugates other forces. If there be a 
God, then mind is His manifestation and therefore eternal. 

I love to think that our departed friends are nearer than 
we know; and anyway it is but a few days, more or less, 
before we shall be with them, and then we may know and 
understand some of the things which now baffle our 
philosophy. 

George Legare made the world better and brighter be- 
cause he lived in it, and although his name may not be 
written large on its tablets of fame he has fallen asleep 
with the sweet consciousness that he left no wrongs unre- 
quited, no enemies to cherish hatred, no unhealed wounds 
caused by him, no duty unperformed. But he has left an 
example of heroic courage in the face of a relentless and 
unconquerable malady, of loving kindness which knew 
no limits save those of his ability to do and be, of a man 
whom to know was to love. What is earth's fame com- 
pared with such a glorious record as this? 

All the petty distinctions of rich and poor, of great and 
small, of high and low disappear when the grim messen- 

[67] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

ger knocks at palace and hut. There may be a more 
costly funeral equipage and a few more floral designs in 
one case than in the other, but for each the coffin only 
contains clay and the dead catch no fragrance from the 
flowers. Both spirits take their flight to their source of 
being, and there, stripped of all earthly decorations, that 
one will be most radiantly attired, most joyously wel- 
comed which is clothed with the radiance of good deeds 
and an unblemished character. 

If it were not for the good, upright, splendid men I have 
met and known, I should feel that my official career had 
not been a great personal satisfaction. The denial of 
financial opportunities, the destruction of the blessings of 
a real home, the heartburning of political contests, the 
worry and work over the many times perplexing questions 
of government would hardly be compensated by the tem- 
porary prominence, the too frequent shoddy distinctions, 
the evanescent glamour of public place; but when you add 
to the credit side the real friendship which comes from 
contact and association with genuine men the balance is 
on the right side. To have known such men as Congress- 
man Legare so well is to be compensated now and forever. 



[68] 



Address of Mr. Sheppard, of Texas 

Mr. President: The words of the preacher, the son of 
David, King in Jerusalem: 

Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; vanity of vanities, all is 
vanity. 

For thousands of years this brief expression has em- 
bodied one of the world's principal viewpoints of the 
philosophy of life. And I believe that it suggests another 
viewpoint which in the same form would read : 

Tragedy of tragedies, all is tragedy. 

In very truth the dominant note of human experience 
is a note of sorrow. The period of childhood, in which 
life seems eternal and death seems meaningless, is the 
only period free from earth's deeper woes. The visions 
and the dreams we knew as children fade rapidly with 
the disillusions of maturer years. 

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, 
The earth, and every common sight. 
To me did seem 

Appareled in celestial light, 
The glory and the freshness of a dream. 
It is not now as it hath been of yore; — 

Turn wheresoe'er I may, 

By night or day, 
The things which I have seen I now can see no more. 

Thus spoke William Wordsworth in voicing the idea 
that in early childhood we retain impressions of an im- 
mortality which was ours before physical birth and to 
which we return when physical death has followed the 



[69] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

trials, the toils, the miseries of human existence. Con- 
tinuing, he says: 

The rainbow comes and goes, 
And lovely is the rose, 
The moon doth with delight 
Look round her when the heavens are bare, 
Waters on a starry night 
Are beautiful and fair; 
The sunshine is a glorious birth; 
But yet I know, where'er I go, 
That there hath past away a glory from the earth. 

The tragedies of humanity find no more somber and no 
more forcible illustration than in the death of George 
Legare. Ten years ago he came to Congress with every 
indication of a brilliant destiny. He impressed his col- 
leagues with an immediate appreciation of his power and 
his poise. Attractive in presence as he was gifted in 
mind, his bearing was worthy of the illustrious family 
from which he came, of the best traditions of his State 
and country. His face reflected the chivalry of his na- 
ture, a heart so gentle and so generous that the South 
could point to him as one of the rarest flowers of her 
soul and soil. 

It was natural that he should have won an instant 
popularity in the American House of Representatives. 
He was an aggressive Democrat, but Republicans admired 
and honored him as much as did his own party associ- 
ates. May his example grow until personal hostility shall 
have disappeared from American politics forever. 

It was a graceful tribute to him and to the South when 
he was invited to Michigan to deliver an address on Abra- 
ham Lincoln. He performed this honorable and patriotic 
labor so impressively and so eloquently that the memory 
of George Legare will be cherished with as much affection 
by the people of Michigan as by the people of his own 



[70] 



Address of Mr. Sheppard, of Texas 



State. This address on Lincoln was made in the district 
represented at that time by Mr. Townsend, now a Senator 
from Michigan, between whom and Legare an attachment 
arose almost like that of brothers. This friendship be- 
tween Townsend and Legare — between Michigan and 
South Carolina, between the North and the South — was 
a most beautiful and touching evidence of a united 
country. 

Another striking feature of Legare's career was the de- 
votion of his constituents. Such was their loyalty that 
although the struggle with disease kept him away from 
Washington the greater part of his time, he was returned 
election after election without a sign of opposition. 

Mr. President, there never passed from earth a nobler 
spirit than that of George Legare. The premature closing 
of a life that offered such a rich fruition illustrates the 
predominance of the tragic in the drama of mankind. 
The rose has perished in the bud, but in God's garden of 
the stars it will open with a fragrance that shall linger 
through eternity. 



[71] 



Address of Mr. Gronna, of North Dakota 

Mr. President : We meet to pay our respects to the life 
and memory of George S. Legare, late a Representative 
of South Carolina, with whom I had the privilege and 
pleasure of serving in the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, and the 
Sixty-first Congresses. 

Mr. Legare was a favorite among the Members of the 
House of Representatives, Republicans as well as Demo- 
crats. Not only was he popular, but beloved by those 
who had learned to know him well. He possessed a 
cheerful disposition, which is one of the attributes that 
helps to make our lives more happy and also makes loyal 
and true friends. It was not a difficult matter to form 
the acquaintance of Mr. Legare, because he was as easily 
approached as he was ready to approach others whenever 
he could render services that would add to the welfare 
and happiness of others. 

Mr. Legare possessed not only a sunny disposition, but 
a keen intellect, a high sense of honor, and an abiding 
faith in mankind. He was always hopeful and ready to 
sacrifice his own interests for the benefit of others and, 
if necessary, deny himself pleasure if he thought it 
would bring more happiness to his fellow men. Such 
men are valuable, and I might say rare in our days, and 
the world can ill afford to lose them. Rut when one's 
earthly life work is ended and the body is consigned to 
its last resting place, on such an occasion all good men 
are mourned and often pitied because they look upon the 
grave as a cold and gloomy place of rest, forgetting 
that it is only the end of an earthly journey and that it is 
the transition from a weary, troublesome, and uncertain 

[72] 



Address of Mr. Gronna, of North Dakota 

life to a more hopeful, happy, and everlasting one. Mr. 
Legare's life was full of promise and hope; he was a true 
friend, a patriotic citizen, and possessed marked ability 
as a lawyer and statesman. 

I was one of the committee who attended the funeral 
in his home city, Charleston, S. C. One familiar with the 
noble life of Mr. Legare could easily realize the cause of 
the profound and heartfelt sorrow which was manifested 
by his immediate family and large circle of friends over 
his untimely death. To these sorrowing friends we must 
add a word of comfort, but I believe it can not be done in 
a better or more fitting way than to ask them to review 
the history of his own life work, which is so inspiring and 
beautiful. 



[73] 



Address of Mr. Martine, of New Jersey 

Mr. President : The world is richer and happier for the 
life of generous, kind-hearted, and true men; sadder and 
poorer for their death. I feel all will say these words well 
apply to the life and death of George Legare. I was not 
as well acquainted with him as some other Senators, but 
I was close enough to him to have learned the splendid 
traits of his character. As you looked into his deep, soul- 
ful eyes you were impressed with the love, sincerity, and 
loyalty that prompted his every thought and action. 
George Legare has gone to that bourne from whence no 
traveler returns, but he left with us, his family, and neigh- 
bors sweet and pleasant memories. 

Mr. President, as one of the committee from this body 
to attend his funeral, I was much impressed and my heart 
deeply touched by the sad and tearful cortege of friends 
and neighbors in attendance at his funeral. Rich and 
poor, white and black, young and old, all crowded in a 
mournful procession of thousands to drop a tear at his 
bier and then to pass on to the beautiful cemetery, the 
home and resting place of many of South Carolina's 
illustrious dead. 

Mr. President, oh, what a day of sadness that was for 
the city of Charleston. The morning was ushered in with 
fitful gusts of wind, the sky was overhung with dark and 
lowering clouds, all adding to the sadness and gloom of 
the day; but as the hour approached when the recital of 
" dust to dust, earth to earth " was to be pronounced by 
the clergyman the winds subsided, the clouds parted, and 
the warm glow of a southern sun shed its rays and bless- 
ings on all around. 



[74] 



Address of Mr. Martine, of New Jersey 



We then laid away forever from the sight of his heart- 
broken widow, children, and fellow countrymen all that 
was mortal of a faithful husband, a loving father, and 
patriotic citizen — George Legare. 

Mr. President, we laid away our brother in life's battles 
in a beautiful spot, amid the rich foliage and glorious 
bloom of the Sunny South. The chirp of the birds seemed 
an effort to drown the sobs of the stricken and bereaved 
ones on every side. All nature seemed to join in solemn 
effort to pronounce benediction over the well-spent life of 
an honest man. 

George Legare has left to his family and to his country 
a heritage richer than gold, more enduring and impressive 
than shafts and tombs of stone; he has left the name of 
an honest man, the greatest work of the eternal God. 
Mr. President, it is my prayer, and you will join me, that 
as Heaven tempers the winds to the shorn lamb so may the 
solace of God's comfort be ever with the stricken widow 
and children of George Legare. 



\lh) 



Address of Mr. Tillman, of South Carolina 

Mr. President: What I shall say on this occasion will 
be brief, for time presses and no amount of words can 
add anything to the sweetness of George Legare's memory 
or afford any consolation to his friends for his death. 
Words do not assuage grief. They only show the devo- 
tion and love of friends and relatives. 

All who knew him loved George Legare too well to dese- 
crate his memory with mere lip service. I first knew him 
when he was little more than a boy. He was bright and 
buoyant, and was so happy himself, bubbling over with 
vitality and fun, that he brought sunshine into every com- 
pany he entered. This buoyancy and lightness of heart 
characterized him all his life, and was the main reason 
why so many men loved him. In all my experience I do 
not recall a single man who was his equal in this respect. 
I do not remember to have ever met a human being who 
enjoyed a joke more than he did. I smile frequently 
now to myself when I recall his recital of some of the 
practical jokes he perpetrated on his father, wife, and 
brother Congressmen. For him to do a thing of this kind 
was natural and like water running down hill. The 
beauty of it all was there was never any malice or inten- 
tion to wound, and none of his jests ever did leave a 
wound or scar. In fact, such practical jokes were an 
absolute guaranty that the person on whom was the laugh 
was a good friend or loved one. 

His associations with his family were ideal; always 
manly, loving, high-minded, and thoughtful. Almost the 
last time he and I talked together he told me of an inci- 
dent, showing the manner of man he was clearly to me, 



[76] 



Address of Mr. Tillman, of South Carolina 



who am a father. He said he noticed his little son, a 
boy of 12, " Bill," as he called him, had a habit of going 
behind the barn. Being curious to see what he did there, 
he followed one day and found him smoking a cigarette. 
He said to him: " Bill, why do you hide such things from 
me? My boy, it is not manly to sneak around and smoke 
this way; if you want to smoke, come and smoke with 
me. I wish, though, you would not smoke, because it 
will make a runt of you by stopping your growth and 
will ruin your health; but don't hide it. If you will 
smoke, use a pipe instead of a cigar or cigarette; that will 
be less harmful. I will get you a pipe if you want me to." 
This openness with his own boy was characteristic of 
the man in dealing with men. I do not believe he could 
have played the hypocrite if he had tried. In all the 
years I knew him I do not remember to have ever seen 
the least cause for suspicion or hint of hypocrisy. Withal 
he was brave as a lion, illustrating the lines of the poet: 

The bravest are the tenderest, 
The loving are the daring. 

George Legare was incapable of lying or trying to de- 
ceive anyone; and yet his popularity with his political 
antagonists was phenomenal, due entirely to his openness, 
frankness, and courage, as well as to other lovable quali- 
ties which draw men to each other in spite of themselves. 
He simply magnetized them. 

We all recall Tom Brown's illustration of human likes 

and dislikes: 

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, 
The reason why I can not tell; 
But this at least I know full well, 
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell. 

As Tom Brown did not like Doctor Fell, so men could 
not help loving George Legar£, and loved him in spite of 
themselves, simply because they were obliged to. 

[77] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Legare 

I remember a letter I wrote him when he first went 
to New Mexico to the Government sanitarium, in which 
I quoted a verse from a song I heard in Chicago some 
years ago : 

There is something in your manner, 
There is something in your smile, 
There is something in your handshake 
That is just my style. 

So it was. I loved him as though he were my own son, 
and he reciprocated in kind. Our associations since I 
came to Washington have been the most intimate. When 
he had anything he wanted attended to in the Senate, he 
came to me naturally and instinctively. It was a pleas- 
ure to help him in his own work in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and I shall miss him more than I like to think. 
His passing away at the early age of 43 is almost a calam- 
ity to the people of South Carolina, and to the people of 
Charleston in particular. Those people feel it, too. His 
work as a public man gave bright promise of a brilliant 
future, and had his life been spared his abilities and 
happy knack of making friends and linking them to him 
with hooks of steel made everything possible that a public 
man can attain. Life in Washington is not the same now 
that George is gone, for he made frequent visits to my 
office, and all the clerks and others who came in contact 
with him loved him, because they could not help it 

That he was loved at his home almost universally was 
shown by the vast throng which filled the church to over- 
flowing and the churchyard and street outside when his 
funeral was held. 

I often think, and have thought more on the subject of 
late years than ever before, about death and the here- 
after. We all know we have to die. That is a truism 
which makes very little impression on the mind and 
leaves practically no ideas behind it. To most people the 

[78] 



Address of Mr. Tillman, of South Carolina 

words leave no impression at all, for, fortunately, human 
beings are so constituted that they can dismiss the idea 
of death in connection with themselves while realizing it 
to the fullest extent when thinking of other people. As 
some one has put it, " Old age, sickness, death, and hell 
are for others; not for us." 

Caesar when master of the world was stricken down by 
the daggers of assassins, and yet the world moved on just 
the same. To quote from Mark Antony's oration over 
his corpse: 

But yesterday the word of Caesar might 

Have stood against the world; now lies he here, 

And none so poor to do him reverence. 

Napoleon Bonaparte, who towered over Europe like a 
colossus and ruthlessly trampled the nations under his 
heel, was tempted by fate and driven by ambition to go 
too far. And when the Russian campaign had robbed 
him of his veterans, he became a prisoner after Waterloo 
and died at St. Helena of a broken heart His career was 
the tragedy of the last century. He died — 

Leaving a name at which the world turns pale 
To point a moral or adorn a tale. 

His death caused not even a ripple, except that the 
world breathed more freely. The greatest and mightiest 
of earth go down to death, and it causes little or no dis- 
turbance or notice. 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

This Congress in its brief life of two years has wit- 
nessed the departure of 7 men from the Senate and 18 
from the House of Representatives. Verily — 

We are no other than a moving row 
Of magic shadow-shapes that come and go 
Round with this sun-illumin'd lantern held 
In midnight by the Master of the show. 

[79] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

Death and its terrors and the grave and its horrors 
have been prolific of thought to the poets. Some of them 
have drawn very gloomy pictures of the grave, while 
others have given us some very noble and sweet thoughts 
about it. Shakespeare says: 

The weariest and most loathed worldly life 
That age, ache, penury, imprisonment 
Can lay on nature is a paradise 
To what we fear of death. 

Again, in Hamlet we have this graphic portrayal : 

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; 

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; 

This sensible warm motion to become 

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit 

To bathe in fiery floods or to reside 

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice; 

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds 

And blown, with restless violence, round about 

The pendent world. 

Both pictures are horrible, and I much prefer to asso- 
ciate George Legare with another poem, which I clipped 
from a newspaper not long ago, credited to Robert Louis 
Stevenson, but I have failed to find it in his works : 

Though he that ever kind and true 
Kept stoutly step by step with you 
Your whole long, gusty lifetime through, 

Be gone a while before — 
Be now a moment gone before, 
Yet doubt not; anon the seasons will restore 

Your friend to you. 

He has but turned a corner — still 
He pushes on with right good will 
Through mire and marsh, by heugh and hill, 

That selfsame arduous way — 
That selfsame upland hopeful way 
That you and he through many a doubtful day 

Attempted still. 

[80] 



Address of Mr. Tillman, of South Carolina 

He is not dead, this friend — not dead, 
But in the path we mortals tread 
Got some few trifling steps ahead 

And nearer to the end, 
So that you, too, once past this bend, 
Shall meet again, as face to face, this friend 

You fancy dead. 

Push gayly on, strong heart. The while 
You travel forward mile by mile, 
He loiters with a backward smile, 

Till you can overtake, 
And strains his eyes to search his wake, 
Or, whistling, as he sees you through the brake, 

Waits on a stile. 

This is so much more in keeping with the man whose 
life and virtues we are commemorating to-day that I pre- 
fer to think of him in that way rather than in the other. 
I love to believe and feel that George Legare, although 1 
saw his body put in the grave, is not dead, but is waiting 
for me " around the bend in the road." I believe if his 
spirit can have its way that he " waits on a stile " to greet 
those he loved here. 

Of course, none of us can know until we ourselves die 
what death really is, and even then we will not know, 
because we will know nothing; but at least we will have 
the satisfaction, if we can feel and think at all — if our 
entity is not entirely destroyed and wiped out — of know- 
ing that the mystery to us is only solved by dying. The 
spirit is simply released from its fleshly bonds, that is all. 

We speak of the " great beyond " and " over the river " 
and other phrases of like character to symbolize our de- 
parture from among our friends here. It is a far more 
consoling thought to believe and feel that our loved ones 
around the " bend in the road " are waiting and looking 
backward over the shoulder for us to catch up than to 

11350"— 14 ti [81] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Legare 

feel that they are in the cold and clammy grave, with no 
light or air or anything else which we so enjoy here. 

I have a mother, brothers, sisters, and two children who 
are around this " bend," and the greatest hope I have — 
and I believe it religiously, or I would be in despair — is 
that when I die I shall rejoin them. 



tag* 



[82] 



i r.ii >ia 



